The Night That Started It All
by natweasley
Summary: This is an offshoot of my main story Harry Potter and the Girl Who Lived. You’ll probably need to read that for this to make any real sense to you but please don’t let that stop you from perusing it. This is about the night that Voldemort started his assa
1. The First Night

**The night that started it all: **

**Summary: **This is an offshoot of my main story Harry Potter and the Girl Who Lived. You'll probably need to read that for this to make any real sense to you but please don't let that stop you from perusing it. This is about the night that Voldemort started his assault on the Potter family.

**A/N: I was suffering from writers block for my main story when this idea came to me, I had all this stuff running around in my head and couldn't resist the urge to get it all down. I hope you all enjoy it and if you have an opinion on it feel free to share it with me**

So far the month of April had been miserable. The rain continually teemed down in liquid sheets and showed no signs of ending. The angry clouds sent the large droplets pounding down towards the earth without mercy, drenching anything that lay unprotected. The wind lashed the rain at a large house that was cowering from the weather in the middle of an open meadow. The dark sky that was massing overhead created the need for the lights to be on in the house despite the fact that it was only four o'clock in the afternoon. Two lights were on in upstairs windows, which were adding to the worried look of the house. The two luminous windows looked like frightened eyes glowing dimly through the gloomy air.

The external worry echoed through the rooms of the house, the atmosphere of apprehension seemed to be seeping out of the structure itself and dispersing through the humid air. All but one of the downstairs rooms were in darkness and the excess light that was trying to escape down the staircase was creating eerie shadows in the hall. The only room that was basking in light was the large country kitchen. A small ugly-looking elf came scuttling out of a door on the right, floating a large pile of food in front of it. It then set the ingredients out neatly before beginning to prepare a meal. On the kitchen table there were several editions of a newspaper and, quite startlingly, the occupants of a picture on the front page were moving. In a large image, which covered almost half the page, a tall but rather plump man with shoulder length mousy brown hair was standing on a podium in the middle of an elegant looking room waving his hands in the air while his mouth flapped silently. The headline read _'Minster Of Magic Confirms 50 Wizards Dead – Carnage at the Quidditch Cup!'_

A sudden laugh pierced through the slightly nervous tranquillity. It was high pitched and hearty. It rang with the innocence that can only be attributed to youth. For a moment, as fleeting as it was, a bright, warm and cheery feeling was breathed in to the residence. The despondency, that had been trying to force its way through the gaps around the doors and windows, was driven from the darkness with astounding speed. A second later another laugh, distinctly different from the first, swished down the stairs. This sound was deeper and undoubtedly older, it echoed with mirth and was laced with love. The noise could be followed up the sweeping flight of stairs, across the landing and in to a large room that was littered with toys. In the middle of the room a tall, strong looking young man of not more than twenty-five was kneeling on the floor over a little girl of three. He was leaning down to smile at her as he tickled her energetically. She wriggled from side to side giggling frantically, "No, Daddy, no!" she tittered. He stopped tickling her and allowed her to climb to her feet. "Do it again!" she pouted, thrusting her arm in her father's direction.

"Now, now, Ellie. What do you say?" he asked her firmly. She looked up at him thoughtfully for a second before she answered.

"Potter's Rule?" she replied excitedly. Her face fell when her father gave her a stern look.

"Is that what Uncle James told you to say?" He hated it when his younger brother tried to undermine the manners he and his wife were trying to teach their only daughter.

"Ummm…" Ellie said with her tiny little finger resting on her chin as she thought over her father's question. "No," she replied, pushing her chin down the way and shaking her head from side to side innocently. She didn't want to get Uncle James in to trouble; he was her favourite person in the whole world, tied with Uncle Sirius. They let her eat all kinds of sweets, stay out when it was raining and play with their wands. Sometimes Uncle Sirius would make himself in to a dog so that she could play catch with him.

"I know you're lying to me, Elizabeth Potter. I know that it was your Uncle James. Now, tell me what the magic word is."

"Plllleeeeaaaasssseeee," she said sweetly.

"Very good," he praised as he reached out to take her tiny, delicate hand in his large and rough one. "Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear. One step, two step, tickly under there!" he sang as he danced his fingers around her palm, up her arm before tickling her armpits once again. The shrill laughter began all over again.

"Andy?" another female voice called from the next door down the landing.

"Yes, sweetheart?" he replied.

"Did you owl your mum this morning?" The petite woman now appeared in the doorway dripping wet and wearing nothing but a towel. In the light her auburn hair, which hung all the way down to her hips, was glinting gold. It gave the impression that a halo was hovering just above her head.

"Of course I did. Can you imagine the ear bashing I would get if I didn't?" He picked himself up off the floor and plonked a little vibrating broomstick in his daughters lap. He then pulled a little golden ball from a box near him and threw it in to the air. It sprouted wings and began to fly around Ellie before zooming off. She immediately mounted the broom and began running her own little Quidditch commentary as she searched for the snitch that was bewitched to fly no higher than three feet off the ground. "Now why don't you go and dry off before you start giving me ideas about having my wicked way with you," he whispered in her ear seductively, as he wrapped his arms around her towelled waist.

"Andrew! Uncle Aberforth will be here in half an hour!" she said in a scandalized tone, but her husband could see from her eye that she actually appreciated the comment. It was nice to know that he still found her attractive after nearly five years of marriage.

Jane was desperate to have more children. She had grown up as the baby in a large family with two sisters and four brothers. Ellie had been such a good baby compared to the others that had been born at the same time as her. Molly Weasley had given birth to her fourth and fifth sons, Fred and George, just a couple of months after Jane had brought Ellie in to the world and they were a completely different kettle of fish. They were smack dab in the middle of the terrible threes and were running poor Molly ragged. From the second she entered the world Ellie had been a quiet baby, she seemed perfectly happy to be out of the cramped and clammy conditions of her mother's womb and into the big, bright world. She had always been a contented child, she rarely cried and was very easily distracted. Last Christmas her godfather Remus had bought her a toy cauldron to store some of her toys in but Ellie had been happier playing with the box. She was good with other children too. She loved nothing more than spending a day at the Weasleys where she could get up to mischief with Fred and George and when she knew that her little cousin Harry was coming over she was as high as a kite and would ask when he would be here constantly.

"Half an hour is a long time," Andrew said cheekily. "Gem?" he called gently. The small house-elf appeared at his side.

"Master Andrew called?" the elf squeaked.

"Yes, could you watch Ellie for a little while? Jane and I have some things we have to do."

"Of course, Master. Gem will take very good care of Miss Ellie." The house-elf bowed to her master. Gem had been Jane's personal house-elf since she was just a little girl and had got her peculiar name after her mistress had continually told her she was 'such a gem' after she completed the numerous tasks that a teasing Jane set.

"Thank you." Andrew then pushed his wife in the direction of the master bedroom.

* * *

Twenty minutes later he was back. "You can go back to what you were doing now Gem, sorry to have interrupted it," he apologised.

"Gem is here to help, sir. Dinner is almost ready," the elf informed him as he gave another little bow.

"Wonderful, wonderful. We'll be down in just a second." Gem disappeared with a sharp crack. "Right, missy, it's dinner time. What do we do at dinner time?"

"We wash our hands!" his daughter replied merrily. She dashed out past his legs and in to the bathroom.

"That's my little angel," he muttered happily to himself as he followed her to make sure she didn't flood the bathroom. While she was washing her hands she heard the front door creaking open.

"Is someone one coming to see us, Daddy?" she asked, her eyes focused on what little of the hallway she could see from the bathroom sink.

"You'll have to wait and see," he teased. When she was done he carried her down the stairs towards the dining room. As he pushed the door open his daughter caught sight of the long white hair that she loved and the smell that she recognized.

"Uncle Abby!" she shouted, her arms sprang away from her father's neck and she kicked her legs until he put her down. She ran around the table and jumped up in to the lap of the aging man.

"How many times do I have to tell you that it's Uncle Aberforth, not Uncle Abbey?" he scolded.

"Sorry," she mumbled on the verge of tears.

"Well, Aberforth is very hard to say when you're three," Jane complained to her Uncle.

"That's no excuse, Jane, you've got to teach her that she can't just call things what she wants," he rebutted.

"Gem tells me that dinner will be another five minutes so why don't you take your Uncle upstairs and show him what your Dad brought you the other day," Jane added to her daughter. Ellie jumped from the chair and pulled her reluctant great uncle from the room.

* * *

Ellie pulled him in to her bedroom and opened the drawer in her bedside cabinet; she pulled a long thin box from it and placed it in his hands. She tugged the lid of the box open to reveal a six-inch wand. " And what's this?" Aberforth asked her suspiciously.

"Daddy bought me a wand," she announced proudly. "I can do magic like Uncle James now!" she said excitedly picking up the wand and swishing it in front of him.

"Is that so? Why don't you show me?" he said playfully. People always thought that he was so grumpy but very few of them knew that his great nephews and niece brought out the best in him. He liked the way children held no preconceptions, they way they didn't judge and the way they said what they felt. It was only a few months ago, on Christmas day, that Ellie had turned to him at dinner and told him he was smelly. There was instant uproar in the room as all the adults began to scold her for saying something so rude and the children looked shocked that she had dared say something like that to their weird relative. That moment had endeared his great niece to him more than any other. He was determined that she would retain that need to say what she felt, she would not have diplomacy crammed in to her to the intolerable level that her grandfather had. She was still showing him how her special new wand worked when an almighty crash sounded in the entrance hall. Aberforth immediately cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and Ellie before he scooped her up in to his arms and stepped out on to the landing with his wand out in front of him. "You hold on nice and tight there Elizabeth and you must be very, very quiet," he instructed the frightened little girl in his arms. She nodded fervently and gripped her uncle's neck as tightly as her tiny arms would allow her.

He crept forward to the banister at the top of the stairs and peered down in to the hall below. Five Death Eaters were now standing in the passage and just behind them, Aberforth recognised the ice-cold eyes of Lord Voldemort. The thundering of feet in the section of the passage that he could see suggested that Andrew and Jane had just burst in to the hallway.

"Get the hell out of my house!" Andrew roared as he moved forward to try and block their path up the stairs. He was trying to pull his wife in behind him so that he could shield her.

"Now, now, Mr Potter, there's no need to be rude. This is very cosy," Voldemort said casually as his eyes roamed over the house. "I assume that my invitation to the moving in party was lost in the post?"

"GET OUT NOW!" Andrew had drawn his wand.

"I'm afraid we have unfinished business and I won't be leaving until it is cleared up. Destroy the house," the Dark Lord addressed his servants as he drew his own wand. "Where is the Muggle-loving old fool now?"

Andrew took a step towards Voldemort and whispered 'go' over his shoulder to his wife. She looked at him hesitantly but he gave her one of his intense looks, the kind that had been able to reduce her legs to jelly when they were courting. She immediately knew that it was not open for discussion and began to edge her way towards the stairs. Her husband began a fast paced duel with Voldemort and in the moment of distraction Jane saw the opportunity to race up the stairs. She only made it up a couple of steps before the Killing Curse hit her in the back. Andrew raced up to catch his falling wife. "Jane?" he called emptily. "Jane?" He tried desperately to fight the tears that were forcing their way from his eyes. It was his daughter's cries that brought him out of his devastated reverie.

"Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!" Ellie cried until her great uncle clamped his hand over her mouth. Andrew's eyes shot to the space where he was sure she was and sure enough he saw her tiny brown eyes floating between two of the spindles in the next space along he saw the piercing blue eyes that belonged to Aberforth, immediately the two appeared on the landing. A silent message passed between the two men and Andrew knew he was going to die.

"Is that perhaps your charming daughter? Elizabeth isn't?" Voldemort walked to the bottom of the stairs. "Elizabeth, my dear, I'd very much like to meet you. Why don't you come and say hello?" There was a horrible playfulness in his voice that disgusted Andrew and provoked him in to action.

"You stay away from my daughter!" His wand was pointing straight at Voldemort and shaking with grief.

"It isn't quite so funny anymore is it, Andrew? You will never laugh at me again." Andrew didn't even have time to defend himself and the last thing he saw was the beautiful little girl who looked so like her mother trying to kick and scream her way out of Aberforth's arms. He smiled up at her and whispered 'My ittle ngel' before he died.

"Severus, get the girl," Voldemort said coldly. The young Death Eater did as instructed and swarmed past the fallen figures on the stairs. He drew his wand but knew that he would not use it. Aberforth was in the master bedroom trying to activate an emergency ortkey while keeping a hold of the screaming Ellie.

"_Portus _" Severus whispered.

"That you, Snape?" Aberforth asked suspiciously.

"Just go," Snape snapped, another Death Eater was coming up the stairs now. "Stop there! _Petrificuc Totalus!_" Severus shouted. He completely missed them with the spell, instead hitting the wardrobe that was five feet to their left. Aberforth forced Ellie's finger on the picture in his hand and they disappeared from the room. "They got away," Snape informed Lucius on his way back down the steps. "I am sorry my, Lord, the girl has escaped," he told his master regretfully.

"How?" The anger in Voldemort's voice went unmasked.

"Dumbledore's brother was here, they took a ortkey," he replied dutifully.

"Do not say that name in my presence!" the one with the cold eyes barked. "Very well, we shall find her at a later date. We shall leave immediately, burn it down," he said surveying the walls with disgust. This was a house belonging to the doddering old fool that was his greatest nemesis. How foolish the old man had been to believe that he would not find them here. He strolled out to the front drive and watched the house burn, then he and his servants isapparated, leaving the place behind.

When the Order of the Phoenix arrived the house was nothing more than a smouldering wreck. Albus carefully picked his way through the wreckage to where his daughter's body lay. "My dear, Jane, I failed you. I will not fail Elizabeth." He rose and returned to the group of order members that had arrived with him.

"What are you going to do with all this now?" Aberforth asked.

"Nothing, I have no desire to do anything with it," Albus replied before disappearing to check on his granddaughter. He swore he would never again return to the place that had taken the last of his children.

**A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed that. There's going to be another two chapters to this, hopefully you won't have to wait too long for them.**

**Thanks go out to my dear Magical Maeve who was kind enough to beta this in addition to my main story. You're a gem!**

**It would be very nice if you could review **


	2. Coming After The Girl

**Coming After The Girl:**

**Summary: **Little Elizabeth Potter is now living with Harold and Eliza Potter; her grandparents, but the Dark Lord has not forgotten about her.

**A/N: I based the setting at the beginning of this chapter on the very real weather that we're having in Paisley at the minute. For those of you not aware, Scotland is in the midst of a heat wave. That begs the question as to why I'm indoors when I should be outside, well I have fiery hair and it doesn't mix well with the sun, unless of course you think that beetroot is a good look. So instead I'm here entertaining you wonderful people!**

August was turning out to be an unbearably hot month. The sky was a crystal clear blue; there wasn't a single cloud to spoil the perfect view. The temperature was so blistering that you could see the heat rippling through the air. To some the weather would have seemed idyllic but to the people of Scotland it was too much. They had been accustomed to the cooler weather of years gone by and found the new excessive heat intolerable. The land rose and fell in random places and in the centre of all this beauty lay a sprawling estate. The edges of the surrounding hills were tinged with a fuzzy shade of purple created by the hazy heat that was beating down on the hundreds of thistles that adorned the landscape. The small castle rose up from the ground majestically, it refused to be suppressed by the sweltering heat. Several of the windows were thrown open wide in an attempt to entice the heat in to the building. The rooms beyond the windows were perfectly fresh and cool, when the temperature had started its sudden ascent the owner of the property had placed a Cooling Charm over the whole building. The said owner was now stood at a sitting room window with a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other. The label on the bottle read _Ogden's Old Firewhisky_ and the man poured a large amount in to the glass he was holding.

He wasn't overly tall, maybe six feet. His hair was so black it could make even a raven's feathers look brown. The hazel eyes that were set deep in to his face behind his black glasses usually danced with the sort of jolliness that is born out of an easy life, but these days there was very little to be jolly about. Good genes had graced him with a handsome face that only slightly showed his age. He was a shade under fifty but he was starting to feel much older. He had bags under his eyes that were almost the size of suitcases and the lines around his mouth were becoming more pronounced. He reminisced of the Sundays gone by when his family would gather around one of their large dinning tables for a good old-fashioned roast dinner. Although they had several house elves his wife, Elizabeth, was such a splendid cook that Sundays were reserved for her. His two sons Andrew and James would come over with their wives and children. For Andrew, his eldest son and heir, this meant coming from A wing, which was off to the east of the house, but James had to Portkey in from Godric's Hollow which was his new home.

Andrew was the taller of the two; he was a strapping figure of a man at six foot three and has always been slightly more sensible than his brother. His wife Jane was a vision of loveliness, a petite woman with auburn hair and a heart of pure gold, unsurprising since she was the daughter of Albus Dumbledore. Albus had been the headmaster of Hogwarts for ten years and was generally acknowledged as the best thing that ever happened to the school. Andrew and Jane now had a daughter, Elizabeth. She was the apple of her father and both her grandfathers' eyes. She was a tiny girl who was the spitting image of her mother with the rather unfortunate exception of her father's nose and temperament, even at three years old she was stubborn as a hippogriff.

James was the same height as his father and because of the older man's agelessness they could almost pass for one another. His younger son had always been a bit of a troublemaker; he was no less intelligent than his brother just a good deal more conniving. James's wife Lily was a very interesting character; she had a first class degree in manipulation. She could read her husband like a book and knew exactly how to make him do what she wanted. She had the uncanny ability to make him do things that she had instigated while keeping him under the impression that he had thought of it. Jane had the same talent but she was much more subtle in her approach, Lily was blatantly obvious and everyone but James could see it. They now had a son, Harry, who, unless he was very much mistaken, was going to look exactly like his father and grandfather. Harold and Elizabeth had been so proud when their grandchildren had been named after them and were pleased as punch when it became very apparent that the pair of them were starting to look exactly like their grandparents.

On a Sunday morning Lily and Jane would automatically go and help Elizabeth with the meal while James and Andrew would join their father in the sitting room or one of the toy rooms to play with the children. This was usually an eventful affair because when they got together the three men couldn't help but start showing off for the children. They would do all manner of things, from making each other float to transfiguring limbs and light duelling all in the name of entertaining the two toddlers. Ellie would sit on the sidelines with Harry on her knee and cheer the men on. Being so young she was rather fickle and her support wavered fairly often. She had the tendency to support whoever looked like they were winning, one minute she would be cheering 'Go, Daddy!' and the next 'Get him, Uncle James!' Often at this point she would pull Harry's hands in to the air and wave them from side to side. More often than not she would end up championing her grandfather 'Yay, Papa!' she would shout and scream as he sent her on a celebratory lap of the room.

When dinner was ready they would all clamber in to seats around the teak table and talk about all the things that they had done this week. This involved the men regaling their tales of the captures they had made to each other while the women talked quietly amongst themselves about how their work was progressing. Harry and Ellie spent most of the meal trying to make each other wear various bits of food rather than trying to eat the stuff. When they were all here the house felt as though it was alive, it cried out for a new generation to explore it. Now the house felt empty, as though its very soul had been shredded. Deep and unending sorrow was etched into the beams that kept the structure together, the walls cried out for stories to keep and the occasional creak of a floorboard was nothing more than a wail of despair.

The change in the atmosphere had been wrought five months ago when the war with Voldemort had been brought home to the Potter family. Andrew and Jane had been forced to flee Potter Hall and go into hiding; they had gone to some old cottage that Albus owned in Devon. After only two months there Voldemort had found them. He had killed Andrew and Jane while Elizabeth had been able to escape with Aberforth Dumbledore. Harold had taken the death of his eldest son very hard. He couldn't grasp the fact that he had outlived his son. No parent should outlive their child. He would have given anything to take Andrew's place; he wished that his son and daughter-in-law had never left the safety of the castle. At least here there would have been more people to fight; Andrew and Jane might have stood a chance.

"Dad?" That one word bought yet more grief crashing down on Harold Potter's shoulders, he recognised James's voice. "Dad, are you all right?" James came to stand beside his father.

"I'm okay, James. I've just been thinking," Harold replied.

"Mum says you've been doing that a lot recently, penny for them?"

"Nothing important."

"It's enough to drive you to drink, which tells me it is something important." James had that critical look in his eyes that Harold recognised so well. He wasn't a big drinker, never had been, and the fact that he had consumed three bottles of the very strong Firewhiskey this week was evidence of his state of mind.

"Where's Harry?" he avoided the questioning glare his son was giving him.

"Lily's taken him to see her mother, it could be months before we see them again so she wanted to spend plenty of time with them before we have to put all the charms up around the house and keep low." James and Lily were not effectively in hiding from Voldemort, word had been passed on from a spy within Voldemort's ranks that the Dark Lord had a fair idea about what the prophecy said and was determined to make sure that it didn't come to pass.

"I think you should stay here."

"We can't do that, Dad," James felt horribly guilty for leaving his parents. He knew that Andrew's death had been hard for them all, it had pulled them together as a family and now James was pulling away from that but he had to, he had to keep Harry safe.

"I know, son, I'm just being a selfish old man." Harold shook his head and put his bottle and glass on a nearby table.

"Glad you said it and not me," James grinned. It was that devilish grin that made him look more handsome than he already was, the grin that had reduced so many of the Hogwarts female population to gibbering wrecks.

"Are you going to see Ellie before you leave? She's missed you and Sirius terribly. We're quite worried about her, she's been very subdued." His stomach twisted horribly every time he thought of what his little granddaughter had witnessed.

"Not surprising is it? I'll go and see her though. Is mum with her?" James adored his niece and had promised Andrew that if anything ever happened to him he would take care of her.

"Yes, Remus is too. She's hardly said a word since that day." He shivered.

"I'll see what I can do, where are they?"

"The playroom next to your mother's study, I'll come with you." The two men walked down the hall in silence and entered the toy room. Remus had Ellie curled against his chest and was singing a gentle lullaby to her. Her pretty brown eyes were slowly drifting closed until she heard the movement, when they fluttered back open. Lupin's lullaby was having a better affect on Ellie's grandmother. Elizabeth Potter was lying on the couch fast asleep. Harold smiled at his wife's exhausted form, this was the first time he had seen her sleep properly in months.

"Look at you!" James exclaimed quietly to Remus. "You've got the Dad thing sorted before you've even got kids; I wish I could have done that!" He couldn't help but think that his friend was a very dark horse.

"I'm just doing what I can," Remus replied. Ellie was now sitting up properly and trying to rub the sleep away from her eyes.

"Daddy?" she called due to her blurry vision.

"No, sweetheart, it's Uncle James," he told her as he kneeled down on the floor in front of Ellie and Remus. She looked at him for a moment and burst in to tears.

"I want Daddy!" She pushed James away and curled back in to Remus's shoulder to sob.

"I want your Daddy too but he's gone away. I wish he hadn't but he has and I promised him that I'd take care of you. Give her here, Remus," James said gently. Remus pulled the girl away from him and handed her to her uncle. "One day you'll see your Daddy again and he's going to be very proud of you."

"I want Charlie!" Ellie decided to wail instead.

"You can't go and see Charlie just yet because his mummy is going to have a baby very soon," James was cursing the reproductive cycle of the Weasley family.

"A baby?" Ellie stopped crying very sharply. He smiled; he had said the magic words. Ellie loved babies.

"That's right, any day now Charlie is going to have another little brother. How about this? After Molly has the baby we can go and visit, would you like that?"

"Yes. When are we going?" she asked, warming to the idea.

"As soon as Mrs Weasley has the baby we'll go and see her," James assured the little girl on his knee.

"But when?"

"We'll see, but I promise we'll go!" James said hurriedly, he could see her bottom lip beginning to quiver. This seemed to appease her and she curled in to his chest before dropping off to sleep soundly. The three men chattered very quietly for sometime, being careful not to wake the sleeping females. When it got to seven o'clock James had to make his way home. He put a fully clothed Ellie in to her cot; her sleep was so deep that she didn't stir once. He and Remus said their goodbyes and Apparated to their homes at the same time. Perhaps if James had known that it would be the last time he saw his mother and father alive he would have stayed.

* * *

It was at twenty past midnight that an explosion echoed through Potter Hall. In reactions yielded from over twenty years spent as an Auror, Harold was awake and shuffling stealthily across the landing with his wand out. Elizabeth was only half a step behind him and although she wasn't an Auror she was an accomplished dueller. There was the sound of quite a ruckus in the entrance hall two floors below them, he could distinguish several voices, Lucius Malfoy was one of them, and he thought that Severus Snape might be another. One thing he knew for certain was that Voldemort was down there. "Spread out and find the girl, I want her brought to me," Voldemort hissed.

"That won't be necessary," Harold announced as he stepped out of his hiding place.

"Ah! There you are, I was beginning to wonder where you might be," the Dark Lord said nonchalantly.

"Here I am." He was not in the mood to partake of the other man's mind games. He couldn't believe the difference in Tom Riddle. Harold had been at Hogwarts with handsome Slytherin, when he had joined the school Tom was in his fourth year and was very popular. He was tall, dark haired and good looking; on top of that he was also very clever and had been elected as a prefect and Head Boy in his later years. Nowadays his raven locks were flecked with grey and his handsome features were lost in the wrinkles of his tired and dull skin. The dark eyes that were once full of life and youth were now empty. They were two deep icy pits that betrayed no emotion.

"Tell me, Harold, where is your delightful granddaughter?"

"You're out of luck, she's not here." Harold braced himself for the onslaught he knew would come and sure enough it did. He felt the brutal attack as Voldemort attempted to break in to his thoughts but he had underestimated this wizard. Harold immediately directed him to the image of Albus holding tiny Ellie and disappearing with her in a swirl of his robes. This seems to satisfy the evil man, Harold smiled inwardly; the memory was fake.

"That really is a shame; I've been so looking forward to meeting her. Is it true that she is the image of her mother?"

"That is no business of yours."

"Very well. It seems I shall have to settle for taking you and your wife are you prepared to duel, Mr Potter?"

"Whenever you're ready?" Harold replied with a nerve of steel.

"Let us begin presently." Voldemort and Harold bowed to each other and their duelling began in earnest. On several occasions one of the men had to duck behind the support pillars of the entrance hall to avoid oncoming spells and it was having a rather bad effect on the house; there was a disturbing rumbling that appeared to be coming from the walls themselves. Elizabeth had been discovered in her hiding place on the first floor and was now trying to fend off three Death Eaters who were relentless in their attack against her. Harold groaned as an Incapacity Spell caught his left arm, it fell limp by his side, no longer of any use. A second later a Blasting Curse had slammed in to the pillar he was taking cover behind, it immediately crumbled and the roof that it was holding up gave an ominous creak. As Harold took cover in the archway that lead to the formal dinning room a piercing scream resonated through the hall. He looked at the first floor landing in time to see his wife toppling over the banister, he knew before he even saw her face that she was dead.

Grief and fury burned through his veins at the same time. He and Elizabeth Lufkin had first started going out in her third year; they had been a couple for four years. They had married only six days after she had left school; that was thirty years ago. He was nothing without her. In his anger he sent a Reductor Curse in Voldemort's direction but missed, the spell shot straight past his enemy and in to the sitting room. There was an almighty crash as the room collapsed on itself and the floors above fell through the gaping hole that was left.

Several badly aimed curses later and the only thing that was left standing was the entrance hall itself. Harold prayed to any and every God that he could think of, for his granddaughter's safety. The realist in him couldn't believe that she had survived, the castle was now a heap of rubble and she was just a tiny child. In a moment of desperation he made a run for the stairs and was almost at the first landing when a Full Body Bind caught him. He saw Voldemort's tall shadow on the wall before he saw the man himself. "Running away, tut tut. I would have expected better from someone like you. Say goodbye, Harold, it has been nice to know you. I Avada Kedavra/I " and with those words Harold Potter was dead.

"Let's get out of here, I can't stand the stench of devotion any longer," Voldemort ordered. Outside he threw one last curse at the building and the whole thing collapsed.

* * *

It was only half an hour later that ten Order members Apparated to the front gates of what had once been Potter Hall and was now a jumbled heap of stone and wood. Amongst the order members present were Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Upon seeing the wreckage Remus and Sirius made almost identical noises in the back of their throats, it distinctly sounded like growling. "Where's Ellie?" Remus asked in a panic. "I want to find Ellie now!" He rushed forward and began picking his way through the wreckage, the others followed suit and the longer that they went without finding anything, the more frantic their search became.

"Over here! I think I've found her!" Dorcas Meadowes shouted through the darkness. She was standing next to a pile of debris that appeared to be howling .

"Elle Belle?" Sirius called through a gap in the wreckage. The crying got louder. Everyone concentrated their efforts in moving the ruins of furniture and wooden panelling away from this spot. When they got to the bottom of the pile a large pine cot was the wrong way up on what used to be one of the formal sitting room's settees. In the centre sat a thoroughly distraught Ellie. She was squealing as loud as her little lungs would allow her. "You're all right, Uncle Sirius has got you. How are you?" Sirius pulled her from under her cot and she clung to him for dear life. "Are you okay?" He looked her over carefully. She sniffed and nodded slightly.

"Where's Papa?" she asked with a tremble. Sirius and Remus shared a look. What should they tell her?

"The bad men hurt him and he had to go away," Sirius said in the gentlest voice he could muster. The Potters had been like parents to him; they had taken him in and treated him like one of their own. He was devastated by their loss and seeing the distress that Ellie was in was making him feel even worse. The news that yet another person was gone from her life only served to further distress the young girl. Sirius looked from the sobbing girls in his arms to his friend; he didn't really have paternal instincts necessary for comforting a distraught child. Remus immediately took over; he lifted his goddaughter from Sirius's arms and began to cradle her tenderly. Within minutes she was quiet and almost asleep. "Well somebody's got the magic touch," Sirius smiled emptily as he ran his hands through Ellie's hair. "What do we do now?"

"We get Elizabeth away from here. May I?" This came from the newly arrived Dumbledore. He reached out for his granddaughter.

"Where will you take her?" Remus asked.

"Some place far away from here where it is safe," the old wizard replied.

"You will let me know where you take her won't you?" Remus had been so honoured when Jane and Andrew had asked him to be Ellie's godfather, he had never been asked to care for something so precious and now that he had he didn't want to lose her.

"I will."

"Goodbye, Ellie," Remus whispered as he kissed the top of her head.

"Take care, Elle Belle," Sirius muttered as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Be good," Peter said as he patted her on the head awkwardly.

"She's the only one that is any good, Peter," Sirius said spitefully. The shorter man just looked at him unsure of what to say. Dumbledore walking away from them without another word stole their attention away. As he strode across the lawn of Potter Hall Albus felt terrible. He didn't like lying, in fact he hated it but he had done it all the same. He would not tell any of them where Elizabeth was, one of the three men he had just left was a traitor, he didn't know which one but it was definitely one of them. Was it Remus and his wolfish tendencies? Was it Sirius and the blood that ran through his veins? Or was it Peter and his jealousy of his friends? He felt confident that he wouldn't have to wait long to find out but until then his granddaughter was going to be where she was safest. Anywhere but here.

**Just one more chapter to go!**

**As ever I would like to give a gracious thank you to Magical Maeve who has been working through my chapters like a little beaver. She really is wonderful**


	3. The Final Night

**The Final Night:**

**Summary: **After the destruction of Andrew and Jane Potter's home and the attack on Potter Manor it's time for Voldemort to go after the last segment of the Potter family.

It was a fairly ordinary house, not impressive in anyway. It was a stereotypical country cottage that was two storeys high and had stone walls that were slightly wonky and almost certainly not straight. It had a solid looking mahogany door with a little round window that had some kind of mythical creature painted on it. The mossy stone was starting to look a bit worn and was crumbling away in places. All in all the house didn't really look as though it could withstand much, it gave the distinct impression that one good gust of wind might knock it down. A three foot high wall, that wasn't in much better shape than the walls of the house itself, outlined a tiny patch of greenery through which the front path meandered. The small front garden was very neat; the grass had been cut with such uniformity that every blade must surely have been measured with a ruler. There wasn't a weed in sight and despite the season the flowers were still vibrantly coloured, there was a special kind of glow about the garden that suggested it was basking in an eternal summer.

The village wasn't very big; it only had about a dozen houses, a post office that doubled as the local shop, and a Fish and Chip place. It was a decidedly unspectacular area. The houses had been cleverly arranged in a crooked sort of circle so that they created a ring of safety around the grassy park area that was in the middle. It was quite a picturesque little spot at the minute; autumn was drawing to its close and winter was already starting to press in upon them. The trees that had been leafy and green during the summer were now standing naked against the stormy sky. Their leaves had turned orange and then yellow before they finally flittered off in a light breeze one day. In the middle of the village green there was a muggle play park, complete with a slide, swings, climbing frame and sand pit. It had rained fairly hard during the last two days and the ground was wet and rather slimy looking. There were droplets of rain that had landed on the handles of the slide and were now dripping slowly on to the shiny metal surface of the incline. They hovered for a second before they began winding their way down the slope before trickling off the end and being soaked in to the earth beneath it.

Who knows how long James Potter watched the scene from the front window of Perott House with some amusement. He wanted to be a raindrop. It was such a simple yet exhilarating life. You started off by living in a cloud; very nice. Then you get to plummet towards the earth at an amazing speed, which struck James as a lot like chasing after the snitch, and after that you just got to ooze around without anybody to bother you. Yep, he thought, it's the rainy life for me. He wasn't enjoying his day so far; it had been one of the most boring days of his existence. Halloween was traditionally a big night for his family and friends but this year was very different. In the last six months he had lost his brother and sister in law, and his mother and father. On top of that his best friends weren't allowed to visit because Dumbledore was fairly certain that one of them wasn't his best friend anymore.

He didn't know how many times he had run over the events in his head trying to work out who the traitor was. He couldn't believe that it was Sirius, they were like brothers, and they were as good as family. At the same time he refused to believe that it was Remus, as far as he was concerned, seeing the quiet man's face when he saw Ellie's distressed state was proof enough that he wasn't the spy. Quite simply he loved the little girl too much. However, James couldn't imagine that it was Peter; the short, tubby boy was fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of life. But the traitor was definitely one of them; they were the only people who could have known that Ellie was staying with her grandparents. It could have been chance, he argued, maybe Voldemort had used his common sense and assumed that she would automatically be given to her grandparents. Or maybe it was just that Voldemort had decided that he wanted to kill the Potters. There could have been a million different reasons for the attack and James felt terrible for distrusting his friends when it might not be necessary.

He remembered his argument with Albus Dumbledore vividly. He had always had a huge amount of respect for Professor Dumbledore but when he had heard the news that his mother and father were dead he had known what he had to do. Ellie had to come and stay with him and Lily. He had contacted Dumbledore by owl several times with no reply and after three days of silence from the headmaster James had put himself and his family at great risk to go to the school and meet with the elusive man. He waited in the headmaster's office for nearly five hours before its inhabitant had returned. "Hello, James," Dumbledore had said in a tone that suggested he had been expecting the young man before him much sooner.

"Yes, hello," he replied shortly.

"What can I do for you this afternoon?" he asked with nonchalance.

"I want my niece."

"As much as I would like to accommodate your wishes I cannot."

"Yes you bloody well can!" James shouted.

"I would appreciate it if you kept your voice down, James," Dumbledore replied calmly.

"No I won't! I want to see Ellie and I want to see her NOW!"

"That will not be possible. I have sent Elizabeth somewhere she will be safe…"

"Then you had better bring her back."

"I will not put my granddaughter at risk," Dumbledore replied evenly.

"You listen here; I will not have the last piece of my family pulled away from me. You bring her back here and you do it now!"

"I don't think that would be an appropriate course of action, the situation is far too dangerous at this time."

"Lily, Harry and I are in hiding, she'll be just as safe with us as she would be anywhere else!" James was not letting the headmaster away with this one; he would do everything in his power to bring Ellie home.

"I am not open to negotiation on this matter," Dumbledore said with finality.

"Neither am I, and I'm not going anywhere until you agree to bring Ellie back. Ellie's guardianship was passed on to my mum and dad and they passed it on to me, I think you'll find that a very valid case for the Wizengamot." The two men sat in silence for a very long time before either had the inclination to be civil with the other.

"If she were to return we would have to strengthen the wards around the house, I will not allow harm to befall her," Dumbledore said quietly.

"Do you think that I would? For Merlin's sake, she's like a daughter to me; I'd die for her." It was only when he said these words out loud that the truth of the matter hit home with him, he would die for her. He would have died for any of them but he didn't get the chance, he wanted to make sure that he did everything possible for his niece.

"That is precisely what worries me. I do not want her left defenceless within Voldemort's reach."

"And would the people she's with be able to do any more for her?"

"I suppose not…"

"Then wouldn't she be better off amongst family?"

"I have been persuaded; I will collect Elizabeth and return her to your care. I happen to like you very much, James, as you are well aware but if anything happens to Elizabeth during her stay with you then you might find yourself on the receiving end of a rather vicious attack. Do I make myself clear?" Dumbledore said indifferently. James was taken back; he had never heard the old man threaten anyone before.

"I understand perfectly. How long will you be?"

"I shouldn't be more than an hour," he replied coolly. He stepped in to the fireplace and called something that James couldn't make out. As he swirled around in the green flames Albus couldn't stop himself from wondering how he had let all this happen. He had always considered that he was something of a great man and he remembered his father once saying that to be a great man you had to accept defeat when it stared you in the face. He had accepted his defeat at James's hands but he could not and would not accept defeat at the hands of Voldemort, far too much relied on that fight.

* * *

So at the end of August Ellie had been delivered to Godric's Hollow and in to the waiting arms of Lily Potter. That was over two months ago now and life had been peaceful ever since. There was the odd occasion where a slip of the tongue had Ellie calling Lily mummy, they hadn't drawn attention to it and in the next moment she would be back to calling her Aunt Lily. She and Harry were getting on like a house on fire, they played all the time and Ellie loved nothing more than helping bath and feed him. Although Harry made the latter a little bit more difficult, his personality was really starting to take shape and he was quickly becoming very independent. He also had quite a sense of humour. He found it very entertaining to flick his food at his mother and cousin, especially mashed potatoes and gravy. 

"James?"

"What's the matter, Li?" he called as he climbed the stairs.

"Can you put Harry to bed? I can't find the Calming Draught instructions that Severus sent over, have you seen them?" Lily was sitting on her bedroom floor with a collection of parchment pieces around her.

"Don't you know that recipe off by heart?" He knew that in her work as a Healer Lily made the potion fairly often.

"I can't remember whether I need to stir it anti clockwise five or six times…"

"'Fraid I can't help you and I'd like to remind you that I'd never touch anything that had passed through the horrifically greasy hands of Snivellus Snape!" he said disgustedly at the thought of the pallid boy that had blighted his school years.

"Hehe – Snivellus – hehe!" James turned around to find Ellie sitting cross-legged in the middle of the landing. She had her tiny hands up at her mouth to try and contain her giggle.

"Well done, James, are there any other horrible names that you'd like to teach our niece?" Lily said irritably.

"Well…" he said teasingly.

"Don't you dare! You've taught her enough bad habits. It's nearly bed time, Ellie," she said in a much more kindly tone to the girl who was now jumping on her uncle's toes.

"No! I won't go!" Ellie turned to her aunt Lily with her arms crossed firmly and her bottom lip thrust upwards. It was quiet possibly the most Potter like thing she had ever done.

"If you don't go then you won't play with Harry at all tomorrow," Lily bargained.

"But I don't want to go! I don't like sleeping!" she protested. James and Lily shared a significant look, they had previously had trouble getting Ellie to bed, and once or twice she had said that she didn't like to sleep.

"Why don't you like sleep?" James asked as he kneeled down to eye level with the girl.

"Because…"

"Come on, Ellie, its uncle James, you can tell me anything," James encouraged her.

"That bad man comes when I'm asleep," Ellie said tearfully.

"Oh sweetheart! The bad is going to come again, I promise." James wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close. He had to admit that Ellie's confession made him feel rather emotional; she had never really specified why it was that she didn't like to go to bed.

"There it is!" Lily's relieved voice rang through the tense air. She waved a piece of parchment in front of him. "It's okay I'll put Harry to bed, why don't you sort Ellie? You'd like that wouldn't you?" Ellie nodded.

"Right we are then. Hhheeeaaavvvee!" he called as he lifted Ellie up. She laughed once again. He deposited her on her bed with the instructions to put on her pyjamas while he went to give Harry a goodnight kiss. "Ok there, kiddo?" he said ruffling Harry's jet-black hair. Harry just looked at him.

"Snitch!" he replied, holding a golden cuddly toy up for his father's inspection. James beamed down at his little boy.

"You'll be a star Quidditch player yet!" he declared. He kissed his son on his smooth forehead and then did the same to his wife on the way out of the room. When he got back to Ellie's room she was sitting on the end of her bed with her pyjama top buttoned oddly, she had missed several buttons. "Jump in!" he called as he pulled back the bed covers for her.

"Tell me a story."

"What one would you like?" He had a feeling he knew what she would say.

"The one about the boys who turn in to animals and have lots of fun!" she replied eagerly.

"Ok then, are you ready?" he asked her and she nodded diligently. "Right, once upon a time…" He barely made it to the part where the boys turned in to different animals before Ellie drifted off to sleep. He brushed a stray hair out of her face and couldn't help but think that she looked like a miniature angel with her porcelain skin and her golden hair splayed out on the pillow. He smiled to himself; kids really did bring out the best in him. He looked in on Harry and Lily to find that she was still reading a Muggle story about a bear named Pooh. He crept down the stairs as quietly as he could and settled himself down in the sitting room with a bottle of butterbeer.

He had nearly drifted off when there was a quiet tap at the front door. That'll be Peter, he thought. After some serious consideration they had chosen Peter as their secret keeper, no one would ever have believed that they would choose him, he was so weak. It was arranged that every night he would stop by and check on them. James answered the door but instead of finding Peter's pasty, rat like face he found the sharp features of Lord Voldemort.

* * *

He slammed the door shut again. He wasn't really sure why, it wasn't like it would make much difference but at least it bought him and extra second or two. 

"Lily he's here, get out!" He shouted up the stairs as he quickly grabbed his wand.

"What did you say?" Lily appeared halfway down the stairs with a towel wrapped around her shoulders; she had clearly just washed her hair.

"He's here. Take Harry and Ellie and GET OUT!" he bellowed. Lily took once look back at him.

"I love you, James," she cried. The door suddenly exploded inwards.

"I love you too, Lily. Now, GO!" He bellowed at her. He was now standing face to face with his enemy. Lily pelted back up the stairs.

"Tell me, Mr Potter, where is your son?" he said in a startlingly cold voice.

"You won't get him," James said defiantly.

"I most certainly will, _Avada Kedavra!"_ Voldemort said almost lazily. James went rigid as a board and fell backwards with a look of horror on his face.

* * *

Upstairs at the same time…. 

"Ellie, wake up!" Lily tried not to shout. "Ellie, please," she uttered desperately.

"Aunt Lily?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Up you get, we've got to go now. We've got to go get Harry," Lily told her urgently as she began to pull the girl from her bed.

"The bad man's come back, hasn't he?" she began to sob.

"It's ok, come on, we have to go and get Harry." At the mention of her cousin, Ellie's demeanour changed dramatically, she was suddenly all business and ran towards Harry's room. Lily felt so sad, a three year old had the instinct to save someone else, it was the definite sign that so much had been wrong with Ellie's life. She followed the little girl through to the nursery and pulled her son from his bed. But she was too late.

"Put the boy down, Mrs. Potter," sounded a dangerous voice from behind her. Lily whipped round and saw the tall figure of Lord Voldemort in the doorway. She handed the now awake Harry down to Ellie and stood in front of the pair.

"Please, leave Harry, take me instead," she pleaded.

"I have no use for you, you filthy mudblood, now, stand aside and let me have the boy."

"No," she said courageously.

"This is your last chance girl, move away." Voldemort's wand was now out and pointing directly at her.

"I'm not moving!"

"Very well, _Avada Kedavra!_" he muttered. Lily fell to the ground dead. Ellie was sitting on the floor with Harry wrapped tightly in her arms.

"You must be Elizabeth, I have been looking for you, my dear," he said to the small girl in a light-hearted voice.

"You're a bad man," Ellie shouted at him.

"You're quite right of course, I am a terrible man. It really is an awful shame, you sound like you might have made a fine woman. Goodbye, Elizabeth, and you too, Harry. _Avada Kedavra!_" There was a blinding green flash and then Ellie and Harry were left alone in the room. The house was shaking violently so she grabbed a blanket out of a drawer near to her, wrapped Harry in it tightly and lifted him in to the wardrobe where she pulled the door shut.


End file.
